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Show Page A7 Thursday, November 11, 2004 Castle Valley Comments Letters from the People by Ron Drake Salmon Air limited by new FAA regulations . . . Letter to Editor Recently, Salmon Air changed its schedule for the next few months. We did not want to change the schedule, and we understand the inconvenience it causes some travelers. However, without the change our passengers might be substantially inconvenienced. The schedule was changed because the FAA prohibits instrument approach landings at the airport at night (landing with the use of instruments only). This means that planes cannot legally land at night with cloud cover at certain altitudes over Canyonlands Field. The impact of this restriction became painfully unavoidable with the change of daylight savings time November 1. This is not a Salmon Air issue; it is a Canyonlands Field restriction and applies to any plane attempting a night landing in Moab. Salmon Air worked very hard with the FAA to find a safe and functional solution. If we did not change the schedule, Salmon Air passengers might have to overnight in- Salt Lake. The inconvenience would be further compounded because that flight would not be able to depart for Moab until the next morning in order to land in Moab after sunrise - delaying the departure of the 7 :30 a.m. flight out of Moab. Canyonlands Field is a great airport with a lot of potential and Salmon Air is pleased to be here. It is possible that Moab could have air service to multiple cities making it a vital transportation hub and highly valued community asset. Salmon Air is committed to assisting in the development of safe, responsive, and reliable air service in Moab and encourages government, businesses, and individuals to take an interest in our airport. To learn more about the Salmon Air sched6 or visit salmonair.com ule call 259-056- -- Tom Russell Moab Salmon Air Operations Manager Thanks for help with Star Hall Improvements Letter: Volunteers and donations are an important part of our community and we would like to take the time to recognize the generosity of those whom have recently gone out oftheir way to help us improve the StarHall. We would like to thank Melissa Schmaedick for initiating the improvements to the dressing rooms and volunteering her time and energy. Also, Susan Baffico for helping Melissa paint, Colon Fryer and Britney Ellis for the furniture, Walker True . . . Value for donating paint, and Flooring America for donating carpet. The project as a whole turned out spectacular and we are fortunate to have these people in our community. So on behalf of Grand County and the Star Hall we offer our sincerest thanks to you all. Respectfully, -- Marvin Day, Teressa Lammert and Jeremy Simpson at the Grand County Facilities Department Safety for Americans is Congressman Jim Mathesons Bill Editor: Thank you for Carrie Switzers coverage of the nuclear weapons issue in the Oct. 28 edition of the Id like to note a correction. The bill mentioned - Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act To The Times-Independen- t. Say it aint so, Joe! .. . was introduced by Cong. Jim Matheson (not Jim Hansen). Cong. Mathesons bill was the model for the later legislation introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bob Bennett. Thank you. --Alyson Heyrend, Salt Lake City - . . . Letter: Imagine a championship football game between two evenly matched rivals the Bulldogs and Rhinos. The game is close, but decided in the final quarter by two controversial penalties that negate touchdowns scored by the Rhinos, giving the victory to the Bulldogs. Later it is revealed that the referees makthe controversial calls are Bulldog alumni, ing have made large contributions to the Bulldog athletic dept., and the one making the controversial calls has even bragged beforehand that he was committed to delivering the game for the Bulldogs. Would it be paranoid to merely suspect the possibility of dishonest refereeing? This is exactly the situation in the last election. Three companies owned by overtly Republican partisans, ES, Diebold and Sequoia, control the electronic voting software used in a majority of EV states. The software is proprietary and secret, although tests conducted by Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities concluded that it was too vulnerable to being hacked by either insiders or outsiders. Walden ODell, CEO of Columbus, Ohio based Diebold and a Bush Pioneer, proclaimed in Nov. 2003: I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year. In states with EV voting and no paper trail, the discrepancy between exit polls, historically accurate within a 1 margin of error, and final in faresults were all off by an average of 5 EV and states with vor of Bush. In pavoting per receipts i.e., verifiable in a possible re- - count the discrepancy was within the 1 margin of error. Exit polls in both Ohio and Florida showed Kerry winning. In Columbus, Ohio, a machine error gave Bush 3,800 extra votes. In Florida counties using optically scanned paper ballots vulnerable to central computer hacking a strange pattern emerged: counties with 70 or more registered Demorecordcratic voters inexplicably coun70 vote of for such Bush. In the other ing EV not ties in the nation software, employing the vote tally closely matched the registration affiliation. These are only a few samples of ubiquitous anomalies now emerging and being compiled a website by FOIA filed 3000 has that blackboxvoting.org suits for election computer logs. House Democrats led by John Conyers of Michigan are demanding an inquiry. One consistent aspect of all these acknowledged EV problems and errors: in every case, the errors tilted toward George Bush. Well, the sportswriters tells us the game is history and cant be replayed. There is talk of moving on and healing. But you do not stitch up an infected wound. Partisan private corporations counting our votes in unverifiable secrecy is a lethal infection in our democracy that cannot be ignored or tolerated in the future. This outrageous travesty must be remedied by the 2006 elections. Or there will be hell to pay. -- Travis Kelly flip-floppe- d, non-partis- an Non-negotiabl- e. Moab Questioning practices of ranger rock climbers the Editor: Last weekend I had the opportunity to climb Moses, a finger of rock in Canyonlands National Park. Since it was a weekend and a perfectly cloudless day we expected to find other parties on our climb. We were shocked, however, to discover two Park Service employees - on the clock - climbing above us. The two rangers were, apparently having a hard time on a rather tricky section high on the route, and as we reached the base we were bombarded by a flurry of falling rock and dropped gear. t Obviously in over their heads, the two NPS rangers left behind a series of bright red and green slings on the climb, a practice widely frowned upon by climbers and strictly forbidden by NPS regulations. When we reached the top of the formation we discovered the old summit register, dating was missing, replaced back over twenty-yearbook new a only the names of the containing by two rangers. Their entry stated they had climbed the route as part of their back country To s, . . . on patrole and replaced the old bolts the route. I had climbed this route a few months prior and noticed nothing wrong with the existing anchors and wondered who in their right mind would go to the trouble and expense (about $80) of replacing them with such poorly placed and shoddily engineered belay anchors. For generations, experienced climbers have done an admirable job of replacing worn and dangerous fixed anchors on countless climbs across the United States, on their own time and at their own expense. As a group climbers do not welcome government interference in the form of unskilled, under-traine- d rangers adding to the hazards of an already dangerous activity, the confiscation of historic summit registers or the decorating of desert towers as if they were the family Christmas tree. In a time of record government spending deficits why are we paying these guys to go rock climbing in the first place? -- Steve Seats in-si-- tu Moab Thank You, Moab, for election day dinner support!! To the Editor: As the new pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the many local folks who again attended our annual Election Day Dinner. It was truly heart warming to see such a great turnout and I felt so privileged to have been able to just walk into local and such a well-establish- ed well-plann- ed event. It has been a great success not just because of the gargantuan efforts of the St. Pius X folks, but because of the wonderful Moab community support. I am grateful for the chance to have met so many of you during the course of the evening. Bless you!! -- Fr. Rick Sherman, St. Pius X Parish Ever since Floyd Stoughton took over the Castle Valley Fire Department as chief over 15 years ago, he has worked tirelessly add- the ing and upgrading departments equipment. He has made use of many grants to purchase firefighting equipment and turnout gear to safely fight fires and enhance the response time. With the growth within the Castle Valley Fire Protection Area and additional calls to the Castleton and Willow Basin area and loca- tions along the river, Chief Stoughton saw the need for a large, powerful fire engine to respond to these areas in addition to homes in the valley. He began searching and applying for funding last spring and submitted an application to the Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (PCIFB). They approved the application and invited us to their monthly meeting in Vernal last August to present our case. We received a preliminary approval for our request with the stipulation that we start and After nearly twenty-fiv- e years, the roof on Castle Valley Fire maintain a sinking fund to re- Station Number One was badly worn and replaced by a place our aging equipment when volunteer crew from the valley. Standing, from left, Bob the time comes. The fire district Russell, Jim Kress, Rusty Salmon, Floyd Stoughton, and Sam board approved the PCIFBs offer Hills. On ladders are Mitch Stock and Don Tuft with Jim and set the dates for budget hearSmouse on the roof. Ron Mengel is behind the camera. ings and public hearings to begin building up the sinking fund. Last week, Floyd and I appeared before the Cris Coffey were on duty 14 hours The Castle Valley voters recorded one write-i- n PCIFB in Salt Lake City with our proposal and a grant for our requested $230,000 was vote, four got new ballots because they awarded. The money will purchase a new punched in the wrong name and six new people registered to vote. Most of the dead wood or pumpertanker truck equipped with a large diesel engine that will carry 2,000 gallons of wapeople who no longer live here has been cleaned ter. It will be equipped with a foam injection up on the register so the 300 who voted reprewill sented nearly 90 percent of Castle Valley votwater the that stretch system conceivably to to will ers. have It capability 8,000 10,000 gallons. nozzle that can be operated on a There have been several stewardship the move from inside the cab as well as other will innovations that make it a projects on Saturdays during the past month to help our community improve and look betvaluable addition to our fire fighting fleet. In other fire department news, nine memter. Last week there was a project to replace bers of the community met last Saturday to the roof on the firehouse and the week before that a Tamarisk trimming project in the town replace the roof on Station One on the Loop Road. The building was built nearly 25 years greenbelt. Next Saturday, November 13th will be a ago and the composition shingle roofing have become very worn. Chief Stoughton said the Loop Road litter and trash clean up. Residents are asked to meet at the mailboxes at 9 a.m. roofing party was very successful and the crew and bring gloves and your own water and was finished with the project about 2:30 pm. snacks. According to Dave Erley, coordinator, Even though the barn's red metal roofing is reof we will start at the river road and work up ends some fascia and the gable complete the valley. Hopefully, we will have enough of a main to be finished. turnout to have three groups. One starts at the river road, another at the mailboxes and one Charleen Radley, who served as election at the Castleton Tower trailhead parking area. judge at last weeks general election, said they We will separate glass and aluminum for recyhad a really busy day with little down time. trucks and a cling. We need a couple of pick-uThey processed exactly 300 people who voted few extra garbage cans or large boxes would be during the day including 41 absentee ballots from all over the country. In addition to handy. They will be working in conjunction with the boy scouts. Charleen, Carol Henry, Dianna Vaughn and roof-mount- state-of-the-a- rt p With heartfelt thanks for fundraiser support. Letter: Allen Memorial Hospital Administration and Moab Valley Healthcare Board of Directors would like to thank Robert and Hope Levin for again sponsoring the fundraising dinner A Night of A Thousand Stars. As was the case last year, the event was extremely successful and well attended. Suzi Rose donated her talents for the second year in a row, by entertaining with her special mix of acoustic guitar and song during the social hour. The new dining room at Sorrel River Ranch was perfect for enjoying the beautiful sunset as well as the incredible scenery at the ranch on the Colorado River. The Levins hosted the event with a cart blanch feel and down home . . hospitality. We certainly want to thank the community as well for the continued support and contributions toward the Moab Regional Medical Center building project. The dinner raised an additional $10,000.00 toward the new hospital, care facility. medical clinics and long-terWith the negative campaigning during the recent elections its great to have something of a truly positive nature to share with Moab. Many generous and caring people in Grand County surround us. Without naming individuals, you know who you are and we applaud you! -Joy Trotter Administrative Assistant Allen Memorial Hospital m "Marriage" defined, let's go on to "man" and "woman" . Editor: The passage of the marriage only for man and woman act presents some real problems. No definition for man and woman is given. Although everyone thinks they know what constitutes a human woman and a human man most of those medical people involved with human bodies can tell you of the many anomalies that occur. Are we gding to discriminate those who do not match the bodies in Grays Anatomy, the medical bible for defining male and female? There are many slips twixt the stem cells and the coffin, none of them in Grays .. Anatomy. Will county clerks be obliged to do a strip search when suspects wish to obtain a license for marriage? If mixed racial people can pick the race they feel best about when asked can homosexual couples do the same picking the proper sex so that they qualify as man and woman? In other words can they qualify by declaring one a man the other a woman; I would if I were in their situation. And lastly if marriage is so sacred how is it that divorce is so easy, perhaps it shouldnt be. Lloyd M. Pierson Moab More letters appear on page A8 Letters to the editor policy The does not necessarily endorse the opinions published in letters to the editor and guest editorials. The T- welcomes opinions from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to Southeastern Utah. Letters should be to the point and must include the writers name, address and telephone number. Letters may not be used to replace advertisements, or to list and thank sponsors or participants to a particular event Letters to the editor will be not be accepted from any candidate who has filed for political office or from anyone writing in support of a filed candidate. Anything unsigned, of a libelous nature, or containing defamatory statements will not be considered for publication. All letters must be typed or legibly written, and be 400 words or less. Letters are subject to editing. Mail to Letter to the Editor," P.O. Box 1 29, Moab, Utah, 84532. Deadline is Monday, 5 p.m. Letters may to editormoabtimes.com. The also be sent via may not accept letters from persons who write more frequently than once every four weeks. Changes to letters to the editor after submission will be accepted only in the most extreme circumstances. Times-Independe- nt -l ail Times-Independe- nt |